Springfield man targeted dozens of older model vehicles in car theft scheme, police say
Police say a Springfield man arrested this week was running a scheme that involved collecting dozens of stolen older-model cars and selling them to a scrap yard.
Charles Crouse, 64, was charged Thursday with two counts of tampering with a motor vehicle and two counts of money laundering or attempted money laundering.
A probable cause statement in the case says Crouse appeared on the Springfield Police Department's radar in November when a car thief in the area told them about an "older man" who was buying stolen cars and then either selling parts off the vehicles or taking them to scrap yards, which typically pay up to $300 for the metal.
Police then began watching Crouse and allegedly saw him hauling stolen vehicles on his trailer on multiple occasions in January.
On Jan. 24, police put a tracking device on Crouse's truck and noticed he was regularly making trips to All Metal Recycling on West Division Street, according to the statement.
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The statement says police went to All Metal Recycling on Tuesday and interviewed the owner who told them Crouse had been selling vehicles to them for years.
Police found All Metal Recycling's bookkeeping to be lacking when it came to Crouse's sales, the statement says.
Sales receipts indicated Crouse sold 60 vehicles to All Metal Recycling between Oct. 3 and Jan. 27, but none were sold with a state motor vehicle title, and the business owner could only locate two bills of sale from those transactions, according to the statement. Police say All Metal Recycling also did not report the sales to the Leads Online database as required by city ordinance.
Due to the record-keeping on Crouse's sales, the statement says there is "no way to identify the actual vehicles that were being scrapped from the paperwork" but police suspect many of those 60 vehicles were stolen.
Prosecutors say Crouse has a lengthy criminal history that includes convictions for stealing, possessing stolen vehicles and interstate transport of stolen vehicles. Crouse is charged as a prior and persistent offender, raising the potential range of punishment on the money laundering charges to 10 to 30 years or life in prison.
Online court records indicate Crouse has pleaded not guilty in this case. As of Friday afternoon he was still being held in the Greene County Jail and did not have an attorney listed as representing him.
As of Friday afternoon, it did not appear All Metal Recycling's owner was facing charges related to this case.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Springfield man sold 60 vehicles, many presumed stolen, to scrap yard
